


Walking Past the Apple-Cart

by gardnerhill



Series: 221b Ficlets by Gardnerhill [11]
Category: Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: 221B Ficlet, Community: watsons_woes, M/M, POV John Watson, Stolen Moments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-09
Updated: 2016-09-09
Packaged: 2018-08-14 00:42:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7992244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gardnerhill/pseuds/gardnerhill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Public displays are dangerous. ...And if they feared danger they wouldn’t be who they were.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Walking Past the Apple-Cart

As two men in a clandestine analog to wedlock, Sherlock Holmes and I are fully capable of exercising discretion in our _amours_. Necessity and common sense both dictate this to be the wisest and sanest course of action on both our parts.

However, there is no honestly-purchased apple that tastes sweeter than one filched from a vendor’s cart.

Throughout the day, as we move through our city, we reaffirm this union in defiance of our country’s laws. A hand on a shoulder at a crime scene, around a wrist whilst in a suspect’s house, tucked into the crook of a dear companion’s elbow during a stroll; lips on an ear to transfer a whispered direction or information; a proffered match for a cigarette on the street (necessitating cupping hands on or near a loved one’s face and looking into his eyes); an assist into a hansom cab for an able-bodied man who can plead a war-wounded leg (the cabman need not know that the injury was actually taken at the shoulder).

And a hansom cab’s closeness, poorly-glazed windows and speed during a night-time jaunt perfectly hides a kiss as stolen as all the other moments.

The empire can declare our love and its fullest expression a crime. But its foremost champion of justice is not averse to a little law bending.

**Author's Note:**

> For the September 2016 Watson's Woes Monthly prompt: **Stolen.**


End file.
